Mesut Sen

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Mehut Sen is a Belgian held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, in Cuba.^[1] Sen's Guantanamo detainee ID number is 296. The Department of Defense reports that Sen was born on February 20, 1980, in Brussels, Belgium.

[edit] Combatant Status Review Tribunal

Initially the Bush administration asserted that they could withhold all the protections of the Geneva Conventions to captives from the war on terror. This policy was challenged before the Judicial branch. Critics argued that the USA could not evade its obligation to conduct competent tribunals to determine whether captives are, or are not, entitled to the protections of prisoner of war status.

Subsequently the Department of Defense instituted the Combatant Status Review Tribunal. The Tribunals, however, were not authorized to determine whether the captives were lawful combatants -- rather they were merely empowered to make a recommendation as to whether the captive had previously been correctly determined to match the Bush administration's definition of an enemy combatant.

To comply with a Freedom of Information Act request, during the winter and spring of 2005, the Department of Defense released 507 memoranda. Those 507 memoranda each contained the allegations against a single detainee, prepared for their Combatant Status Review Tribunals. The detainee's name and ID numbers were redacted from all but one of the memoranda. However 169 of the memoranda had the detainee's ID hand-written on the top right hand of the first page corner. When the Department of Defense complied with a court order, and released official lists of the detainee's names and ID numbers it was possible to identify who those 169 were written about. Mesut Sen was one of those 169 detainees.^[2]

[edit] Allegations

a. The detainee is associated with the Taliban and al Qaeda:

1. Detainee is ###### ###### ###### who admitted he traveled thru [sic] Malaysia, Egypt, Pakistan, and then to Afghanistan in 2001 to study with a mentor who is a known operative and member of the explosives team of al Qaeda.
2. Detainee arrived in Kabul in June 2001, he then decided to stay indefinitely with his mentor in a house used by foreign fighters.
3. Detainee's mentor was seen escorting soldiers to the front and promoting morale.
4. Detainee admits that in 2001 he gave $5000 (USD) to a man in the Taliban Embassy in Pakistan.
5. Detainee was captured by Pakistan armed forces in the village of Cheman (next to the Pakistan Afghanistan border) while on his way to Quetta Pakistan.

[edit] Testimony

Sen chose not to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.

[edit] Administrative Review Board hearing

Detainees who were determined to have been properly classified as "enemy combatants" were scheduled to have their dossier reviewed at annual Administrative Review Board hearings. The Administrative Review Boards weren't authorized to review whether a detainee qualified for POW status, and they weren't authorized to review whether a detainee should have been classified as an "enemy combatant".

They were authorized to consider whether a detainee should continue to be detained by the United States, because they continued to pose a threat -- or whether they could safely be repatriated to the custody of their home country, or whether they could be set free.

The factors for and against continuing to detain Sen were among the 120 that the Department of Defense released on March 3, 2006.^[3]

[edit] factors for and against continued detention

The factors for and against continued detention were:^[3]

[edit] The following primary factors favor continued detention:

Casio F91W -- a model of watch that U.S. intelligence officials tie to terrorism. Mesut Sen was detained, in part, because he was alleged to be wearing one of these watches when he was captured.

a. Commitment

1. The detainee is a Belgium citizen that admitted to traveling from Germany, through the Netherlands, the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, to Jalalabad, Afghanistan in September 2000.
2. The detainee traveled to Afghanistan with approximately 2,000 to 2,500 U.S. dollars along with his Belgian passport.
3. The detainee’s passport was taken for storage while at the Kandahar, Afghanistan guesthouse and he was given a new name.
4. The detainee was captured in a village near Peshar [sic], Pakistan while trying to cross the border into Pakistan.

b. Connections/Associations

1. The detainee lived for nearly one year at a Taliban transit house in Jalalabad, Afghanistan.
2. Detainee had connections to Millus Gorus [sic], as did his father.
3. The Belgium Government considers Milli Gorus [sic] to be an extremist group and it is therefore banned from having representatives on the official representative board for Muslims in Belgium.

c. Other

1. The detainee was in possession of a Casio watch. The same model number of Casio watch found in the possession of the detainee has been frequently used in bombings that have been linked to al Qaida and other radical Islamic terrorist groups.
2. Emerging as a leader, the detainee has been leading the detainees around him in prayer. The detainees listen to him speak and follow his actions during prayer.

[edit] The following primary factor favor release or transfer:

a. Other Relevant Data

1. The detainee admits that he contacted the Taliban office in Quetta in order to enter Afghanistan, but claimed he had no affiliation with the Taliban.

[edit] References

1. ^ list of prisoners (.pdf), US Department of Defense, May 15, 2006
2. ^ Summary of Evidence memo (.pdf) prepared for Mesut Sen's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - September 9, 2004 page 208
3. ^ ^{a b} Factors for and against the continued detention (.pdf), of Mesut Sen Administrative Review Board, January 25, 2005 - page 1